Editing GURPS Dungeon Fantasy: Hell's Rebels

This is the home page for the GURPS Dungeon Fantasy: Hell's Rebels PBP campaign on the RPG.net forums. 

= Dungeon Fantasy: Hell's Rebels =

Welcome to Kintargo, the greatest beacon of freedom in the literal fascist hellhole that is Cheliax!

The Thrice-Damned House of Thrune has ruled this benighted nation for a hundred years, erasing and revising any records of its history that do not agree with their diabolic philosophies! Culturally and geographically isolated from the rest of the country, Kintargo has stood as a haven for those who crave the freedom to live as they wish away from the eyes of Hell. 

As a force of zealous knights of Iomedae (goddess of justice) wages a holy war against the Thrune regime in central Cheliax, Queen Abrogail II decrees martial law across the whole nation! Paracount Barzilai Thrune has volunteered to enforce this decree in Kintargo, and his arrival was preceeded by the mysterious disappearance of the former Lord-Mayor and a mysterious wave of arson and murder!

In these trying times, some citizens look to the legend of the Silver Ravens, a group of heroes and rebels who resisted the house of Thrune decades ago. Little is known about them other than "they existed", but the idea that someone was brave enough to make a stand is enticing. 

As we open our curtains, a large crowd gathers to protest in front of the Kintargo Opera House, which Barzilai Thrune has transformed into his headquarders. You find yourselves in this protest. Why?

== The City of Kintargo == 


Visually and culturally, Kintargo is very similar to Renaissance Florence as depicted in Assassin's Creed 2. It's built on the mouth of the Yolubilis river, with the southern half of the city lying on an island named Argo Isle. A single bridge links the two halves. The skyline is dominated by Castle Kintargo (C1 on the map to the left), the Temple of Asmodeus (T3) and the spires of Alabaster Academy (V4), a somewhat prestigious university.


[[File:Kintargo-map.jpg | 300px | ]] [[File:Kintargo Isometric Smaller.png | 300px | Isometric skyline for Kintargo. The monsters are merely decorative.]] [[File:Florence-skyline.jpg | 300px | Real-world Florence. You can see the visual influence on the fictional city.]]

= Rules of Combat =

== Visual Aids ==

I'm going to use Google Draw documents with edit access for players as battlemaps. These are the ones we have so far:

[https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1PPvBBmsqy0PIDLEvZYjtpKzLXj_UAuuoZrlv_nTIEAU/edit Aria Park Riot]

[https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1PJtFY1BL7KSENLLtpNLgu1DI5wwwhxBU0C2z_jdlvlo/edit Fair Fortune Livery]

There is also a combat tracker spreadsheet that will always contain the status for our current fight.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jdaVHZIxMhAts2SWKm9iCmBaKFDtgFrAPMEJcwks0JY/edit?usp=sharing

== Initiative ==

We're using an alternate initiative system in this game. This is the "Popcorn Initiative" system seen in Lancer and a few other games. I feel it allows for a smoother flow in a PBP.

1. When a combat starts, a PC (any PC) always goes first.

2. After that, enemies and PCs take alternate turns until one side runs out of people.

3. The remaining people on the other side act in sequence.

4. If the last character to act in the previous round was a PC, an enemy acts first this round. If it was an enemy, a PC acts first.

5. Repeat steps 2-4 until the fight is over.

"The Fight is Over" doesn't necessarily means "all enemies (or PCs) are dead" - combats can and will have objectives that are different from that.

== Attacking and Defending ==

GURPS uses active defenses whose options involve a lot of player choices, so we need to take some care to handle it in PBP.

When you attack, describe how you do so. Make sure to include the necessary game info either as part of your narration or as part of an OOC block: who you're attacking, whether it's a swinging or thrusting attack, and if you're targetting a specific hit location. Include your attack and damage rolls in your post.

The target of your attack then gets to make an immediate post with their defense rolls, as well as any necessary "knockdown and stunning" rolls if they get hit. They describe the effects of the blow based on those rolls.

If you're being attacked, it works the same but in reverse. Alternatively, you can specify a standard defensive tactic for your character (like "Parry the first attack, Dodge the others with a retreat") and I'll handle the rolls and their effects on the enemy action post.

= Dungeon Fantasy Reference Material =

Several of our players are familiar with GURPS but not with the Dungeon Fantasy rules specifically. For reference purposes I'm going to post some material from the DF books here. Mostly a few tables and lists that aren't present on the default GURPS rules.

== Armor Tables ==

We're using the armor table from DFRPG: Adventurers. If you don't have that book, use these images as a guide when buying armor. 

[[File:Armor-table-1.png]]

[[File:Armor-table-2.png]]

== Magic Overview ==

Dungeon Fantasy magic is mostly similar to the "standard" GURPS Magic system: you have an advantage representing your raw magic power, and a series of spells that are bought and improved like skills. Your advantage gives you a bonus to learning them. Each spell has a defined effect that's detailed in its individual description.

In standard GURPS magic, the advantage is named Magery, and all spells are organized in big pre-requisite trees. A mage can learn any of them as long as they follow the pre-requisite chain. Magic is powered by mana, and ambient mana levels affect how powerful it is. You can't cast spells at all in a place with no mana.

Dungeon Fantasy carves this system up in different niches that mimic some D&D classes. "Wizardly" magic is the one that most resembles the standard system above. Wizards use Magery and pre-requisites, but they don't have access to all spells any more. Still, they have by far the largest spell list. Sorcery counts as wizardly magic even though its mechanics are a bit different. So does bardic magic. They depend on mana.

"Clerical" or "holy" magic uses an advantage named Power Investiture instead of Magery, and a smaller but simpler spell list. Instead of worrying about pre-requisites, each level of Power Investiture (there are six in total) gives you access to a new set of spells. Holy magic has exclusive access to magical healing, and easier access to a lot of protective and buffing spells that would normally sit at the end of long prereq chains. It depends on Sanctity, which works a bit like mana but is separate from it. Most places are "normal" sanctity, but a temple or consecrated space is higher-sanctity for its patron deity and lower-sanctity for their enemies.

"Druidic" or "Nature" magic is similar to clerical magic, with Power Investiture (Druidic) and a small spell list. It has exclusive access to Animal and Plant spells, and easier access to some elemental spells. It depends on something called "Nature's Strength", which is different from both Mana and Sanctity. Druid spells get no penalty in wild places, -1 anywhere Nature has been modified but surrounds you on all sides (like an underground dungeon), -3 if completely surrounded by artificial structures, and -5 to -10 in polluted places. As this is a mostly urban adventure, a druid would be getting a -3 on most of their spells.

=== Clerical Spell List === 

This is the spell list used by Clerics, as copied from the book. You still need to learn your spells as usual but there are no pre-requisite trees. The only prerequisite for a given cleric spell is the listed level of Power Investiture. 

The table contains the spells for the first three PI levels, I'll add more as needed.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Power Investiture Level 
!Spells
|-
| '''1''' 
| Armor, Aura, Bravery, Cleansing, Coolness, Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Final Rest, Lend Energy, Lend Vitality, Light, Might, Minor Healing, Purify Air, Purify Water, Recover Energy, Sense Evil, Sense Life, Sense Spirit, Share Energy, Share Vitality, Shield, Silence, Stop Bleeding, Test Food, Thunderclap, Umbrella, Vigor, Warmth, and Watchdog.
|-
| '''2'''
| Awaken, Command, Compel Truth, Continual Light, Create Water, Glow, Great Voice, Healing Slumber, Hide Thoughts, Light Jet, Major Healing, Persuasion, Protection from Evil, Purify Food, Relieve Sickness, Resist Acid, Resist Cold, Resist Disease, Resist Fire, Resist Lightning, Resist Pain, Resist Poison, Restore Hearing, Restore Memory, Restore Sight, Restore Speech, Seeker, Stop Spasm, Summon Spirit, Truthsayer, Turn Spirit, and Turn Zombie.
|-
| '''3'''
| Affect Spirits, Astral Vision, Breathe Water, Command Spirit, Create Food, Cure Disease, Dispel Possession, Flaming Weapon, Great Healing, Magic Resistance, Neutralize Poison, Relieve Paralysis, Repel Spirits, Restoration, Secrets, Silver Tongue, Stone to Flesh, Stop Paralysis, Strengthen Will, Sunbolt, Sunlight, Suspended Animation, and Wisdom.
|}
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−	Visually and culturally, Kintargo is very similar to Renaissance Florence as depicted in Assassin's Creed 2. It's built on the mouth of the Yolubilis river, with the southern half of the city lying on an island named Argo Isle. A single bridge links the two halves. The skyline is dominated by Castle Kintargo (C1 on the map to the left), the Temple of Asmodeus (T3) and the spires of Alabaster Academy (V4), a somewhat prestigious university~~. You can click on the images to go to their file pages and see the full size versions~~.	+	Visually and culturally, Kintargo is very similar to Renaissance Florence as depicted in Assassin's Creed 2. It's built on the mouth of the Yolubilis river, with the southern half of the city lying on an island named Argo Isle. A single bridge links the two halves. The skyline is dominated by Castle Kintargo (C1 on the map to the left), the Temple of Asmodeus (T3) and the spires of Alabaster Academy (V4), a somewhat prestigious university.